After ten weeks travelling around New Zealand’s wonderfully rain-soaked and wind-whipped South Island, I returned home with thousands of photos of trees and mountains and waterfalls. Editing them has proved simultaneously challenging (how many photos of trees can one justify keeping?) and calming (looking at all those waterfalls must be therapeutic), but I’ve finally come up with a selection of my favourites, shown below in fifty shades of green all their technicolor glory…

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In other news, the Rough Guide to Myanmar (which I worked on last year) is out! To fuel any Burma-related wanderlust you may be suffering from, check out this list of quintessential Burmese experiences that I put together for the Rough Guide website recently…

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Soundtrack: Maisey Rika, “Tangaroa Whakamautai”

Weather incoming, Lake Manapouri

Mountain beech, Arthur’s Pass

A beached boat at Golden Bay on Stewart Island

A great spotted kiwi’s footprints in the snow near Arthur’s Pass

Freewheeling along Highcliff Road, Otago Peninsula

The wild but wonderful West Coast

Spot the cruise ship (2), Milford Sound

Lake Ohau

Mountains in monochrome, Southern Alps

Surf’s up at St Clair, Dunedin

Stewart Island’s #1 pastime, Halfmoon Bay

Spot the camper van, Mt Cook

A kea awaits his audience, Milford Road

The cave of penguins, Cathedral Caves

A woodland path runs through Arthur’s Pass National Park

The best and worst campsite of my trip. Wild winds kept me awake all night to watch star-filled skies wheel overhead.

Devil’s Punchbowl Falls, Arthur’s Pass National Park

Pancake Rocks at Punakaiki with the Southern Alps in the distance.

Church of the Good Shepherd, Lake Tekapo

Positive ions at Stirling Falls, Milford Sound

Obligatory “sheep in the road” shot, Fiordland

The end of the road and the start of the trail in the Hollyford Valley, Fiordland

Lupins at dawn, Lake Tekapo

Only in New Zealand… (2)

Red, Larnach Castle

Nugget Point in The Catlins

A curly fern

Christchurch Cathedral, three years after the series of earthquakes that destroyed the building and the heart of the city around it.

Near Lake Ohau on the Alps 2 Ocean Cycle Trail

A fine day for cycling, Lake Pukaki

Glacial flour, Lake Pukaki

Only in New Zealand… (3)

Golden Bay on beautiful Stewart Island

Milford in the mist

Level crossing across a roundabout? Why not! [Only in New Zealand… (1)]

A cheeky robin hops about in the undergrowth at Arthur’s Pass National Park

Getting to Cathedral Caves, The Catlins

Beside the seaside, Aramoana

A seagull at Monkey Island on Te Waewae Bay

A view of South Islands icy spine from the West Coast road

A monument to the climbers who have perished on the slopes of New Zealand’s highest mountain, Mount Cook

Church of the Good Shepherd, on the shore of Lake Tekapo

Seals in silhouette, Milford Sound. Sealers pushed the species to the brink of extinction in the 1820s, but New Zealand’s fur seal population is bouncing back nicely…

Green, Larnach Castle

Monkey Island on Te Waewae Bay

Moria Gate Arch, Oparara Basin

Taiaroa Head from Aramoana

A weka beneath my wheels, West Coast

First Church of Otago, Dunedin

A lighthouse emerges from grass-covered waves at Waipapa Point, site of New Zealand’s worst civilian shipwreck

Hills, Hanmer Springs

An irate sea lion roars at a side-stepping seagull at Waipapa Point. New Zealand sea lions are relatively rare, with males – like this one – weighing in at up to 400kg

A Mount Cook lily blossoms despite a late snowfall in Arthur’s Pass National Park

Spot the cruise ship, Milford Sound

A sleepy seal at Pilots Beach, Otago Peninsula